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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25619674">Papers</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheatrePhantom/pseuds/TheatrePhantom'>TheatrePhantom</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Human Zim [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Invader Zim</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adopted Children, Adoption, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Orphanage, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cruelty, Fights, Fist Fights, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Human, Human Zim (Invader Zim), Orphanage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 08:49:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,728</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25619674</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheatrePhantom/pseuds/TheatrePhantom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Human Zim has a bit of difficulty at the orphanage he has been placed in.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Almighty Tallest Purple &amp; Almighty Tallest Red, The Almighty Tallest &amp; Zim</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Human Zim [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1855570</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>50</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Papers</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/An0nymsTales/gifts">An0nymsTales</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Orphanages- in Zim’s experience- were nothing like they were in the films. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Unlike how most TV shows and movies portrayed orphanages- with the person running them being malicious and unloving and the other orphans forming a found family- Zim’s experience was… off. In fact, his experience was almost the exact opposite of what he always saw on television.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The people who worked at the orphanage were all kind and the main person who Zim interacted with seemed to genuinely want to be a good parent to all of them. Joy was their name, (fitting, in Zim’s opinion), and they did what the could to be the parental unit that they all lacked. Initially, it had been uncomfortable to Zim- he didn’t want someone to pretend that they were the parent he had lost and he had excepted something so different from what he discovered that it was almost jarring how kind they were. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>T</span>
  <span>he employees were pretty much the only ones who treated him with kindness, though. Shockingly, all of the other children who lived there with him were incredibly standoffish and aggressive towards him. They didn’t understand the situation that led to his mom’s death- hell, neither did </span>
  <em>
    <span>he</span>
  </em>
  <span>- but their lack of understanding only bore anger and violence towards him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As much as Zim wanted to be close to his family at the orphanage, no matter how hard he tried to gain their affections, he couldn’t seem to befriend them. He was seen as an outcast. Regardless of his efforts, he could not endear himself to those living there. Considering they were all in the same position, Zim had expected all of them to be able to get along, at the very least. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Unfortunately, he had been wrong and that didn’t change over his years there. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When he was younger and living there, they didn’t insult him as much- or, perhaps, he just didn’t notice it because of the naivety that came with his age- but, as time passed within the orphanage, things got worse. Insults were hurled at him by his “siblings” nearly every day. Even around couples who were looking to adopt children from their orphanage, they would go out of their way to say things about Zim. They were far more cut-throat about ensuring that they got adopted and Zim didn’t than he had ever expected and it wore on him greatly, over time. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>For what felt like forever, though, he held it together. He was certain that things would work out. He was nothing if not strategic and amazing- he could win them over and befriend his new “family” eventually. He just needed to wait it out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span> T</span>
  <span>hat wasn’t the case, as it turned out. </span>
</p><p>
  
  <span>Zim’s attempts at being friendly towards the others were brutally crushed, stomped out on one horrible day when Zim finally snapped. </span>
</p><p>
  <span> T</span>
  <span>hey had called him a murderer. </span>
</p><p>
  
  <span>Zim couldn’t take it. Was it not bad enough that he had lost his mom? That it was </span>
  <em>
    <span>his</span>
  </em>
  <span> fault it had all happened? That he had seen the life fade from her slowly? The world had already taken away the one person who had ever loved him- who had </span>
  <em>
    <span>always</span>
  </em>
  <span> loved him- and now </span>
  <em>
    <span>this</span>
  </em>
  <span> was happening? Now people were taking his attempts at kindness and destroying them for their own amusement?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wasn’t going to let himself be their victim anymore. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>That was the first time Zim ever got into a fistfight and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. Despite his novice knowledge about how fighting actually worked, he managed to “win” the fight. At least, he had done far more damage to the kid than they had inflicted upon him. With what happened next, though, Zim didn’t know if he could really consider what had happened a “win”.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Obviously, his fight with the other kid didn’t go unnoticed. They were pulled apart by Joy as well as one of the others who worked there whose name Zim had never bothered to learn. Apparently, they weren’t allowed to let him go around fighting kids and him getting into a fight as brutal as the one he got into was enough for them to legally need to include it in his files. Anyone who would look at him for potential adoption would have to know about the things he had done- including his “little violent outburst”. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>At the very least, that had made the others fear him enough for the majority of them to stop messing with him. Zim always assumed that, because everyone had stopped bothering him, everything would be okay. He assumed that things would work out better than they had before. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was one thing that he didn’t take into consideration, though. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know, no one is going to want to adopt you if they know you’re some crazy child murderer.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The blood drained from Zim’s face as he heard that. He hadn’t considered it before- the idea that no one would want him anymore, but it made sense, right? Who would want someone who had inadvertently </span>
  <em>
    <span>killed</span>
  </em>
  <span> their only parent when there were tons of kids there who were perfectly normal? What if Zim had to spend the rest of his life there in that godforsaken place? What if no one ever </span>
  <em>
    <span>loved him</span>
  </em>
  <span>? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wasn’t going to let that happen. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>After yet another fight with the kid who had told him that, he formulated a plan. Zim didn’t have much experience with computers or technology in general, but he was incredibly smart and adaptable. He was certain that he would find a way to do what he needed to do, even if he wasn’t certain what it was that he needed to do. He just had to wait for an opening and do his best. He was sure to succeed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>I</span>
  <span>t wasn’t as if the opportunity to access the documents he needed to get to was one that arose infrequently. Everyone needed to sleep at some point, including the people who worked there, and none of them really saw the kids hacking their computer as a possible concern they needed to worry about. Zim just had to wait until nightfall, grab the keys from the hook behind the front desk, and go into the room. The passwords to nearly everything was kept on a sticky note in the drawer of the desk with the computer, so Zim didn’t even have to struggle too much to get into it.  From there, it was smooth sailing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Or, at least, to an extent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It wasn’t difficult to find his documents considering how uncommon his name was nor was it hard to edit them to suit his needs. What </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> hard, though, was being forced to relive all the horrible memories that came with reading about his life before coming there. Of course, he didn’t need anybody- let alone some words on a fucking computer- to tell him who he was or what had happened to him, but being reminded of everything was… painful to say the least. The knowledge that it was </span>
  <em>
    <span>his </span>
  </em>
  <span>fault that he was where he was was enough to make his throat close up painfully. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>T</span>
  <span>hat wouldn’t stop him, though. He wasn’t going to stay in that shithole just because he felt guilty about what had happened. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He edited the information on the document. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>~~~</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For a few months, Zim had to wonder whether or not his plan had actually worked. Maybe he hadn’t correctly input the new information or maybe someone had seen what he had done and changed it back. Perhaps, he really was never going to be able to get adopted… </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then a couple came in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zim didn’t know much about the adoption process, but he knew enough. These people had definitely gone through some type of screening process where the people working there had decided that they were worthy of even coming in. The process frequently went for a long time between the potential parents and the people working at the adoption agency before the parents were even able to formally meet the children there. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zim also knew enough to know that, had he failed, no couple would choose him over the others. As it turned out, though, they did, so he must have succeeded in his attempts of wiping his slate clean. The two men who came in barely even interacted with or looked into any other children- they focused almost entirely on Zim! </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two men were incredibly nice, in Zim’s eyes. They were both tall with large eyes that reminded him of his birth mother. Both of them wore elegant suits of a similar style. While Zim didn’t know their names- he had been too excited that they had taken interest in them to catch their actual names- he noticed that each of them wore somewhat colour-coded outfits, so Zim just began calling them by whatever colour it was that each man wore the most of. Their real names weren’t important. What was important was that they were capable of adopting and taking care of a child and wanted </span>
  <em>
    <span>him</span>
  </em>
  <span> above all of the others. What mattered was that, someday soon, he would have a new home. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>~~~</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The majority of parents adopting children wanted to adopt newborn babies. They, however, were not like most expecting parents. They didn’t want to deal with a newborn baby and they knew that they weren’t capable of taking care of anyone- or anything- that young. They knew that they </span>
  <em>
    <span>needed</span>
  </em>
  <span> an older child. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It just so happened that there was one incredibly </span>
  <em>
    <span>interesting</span>
  </em>
  <span> child that their adoption agency had mentioned. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They had spoken about the child as though he was a sort of last option for them- someone that no one would want. When they were shown his files, though, they didn’t think that was the case. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The child had a strange history of violence towards the other kids there that the two men couldn’t help but find intriguing. It reminded them of themselves when they were younger. It was clear that he would be entertaining to have as a child and, since he was a bit older, he wouldn't need as much from them as a baby would. Adopting the weird little kid was perfect for him- even if he </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> have a track record. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>All they had to do was make it final. </span>
</p><p>
  
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I don't know if this counts as a happy or fluffy ending, but at least Zim is getting a family?</p></blockquote></div></div>
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